Emergency Dentistry

What is a dental emergency?

There are various types of dental emergencies that can occur. These may include sudden and severe toothaches, accidents that result in a chipped or cracked tooth, a damaged or loose restoration, or a lost or damaged tooth. To determine if your situation is an emergency, it’s essential to ask yourself a few questions listed below:

• Are you in severe pain or experiencing significant swelling?
• Do you have a painful toothache that won’t go away?
• Do you have a loose or knocked-out tooth?
• Are you experiencing swelling in your cheeks or face with a toothache?
• Are you experiencing extreme tooth sensitivity?
• Are you bleeding from the mouth, and the bleeding won’t stop?
• Is your jaw injured?

In general, any dental problem that requires immediate treatment to stop bleeding, alleviate severe pain, or save a tooth is an emergency. This also applies to severe infections that can be life-threatening and require professional care as soon as possible.

What’s the best way to handle a dental emergency?

In case of a dental emergency, the first step you should take is to contact our office. However, if the issue is very severe or occurs outside of regular office hours, you should seek immediate medical attention at the nearest emergency room.

Depending on the dental emergency you are experiencing, there are some things you can do to help alleviate your pain and improve the situation. These include:

• Dissolve a teaspoon of salt into a mug of warm water and use it as a mouthwash.
• Trying to floss to relieve any gum pressure.
• Applying a cold compress to the swelling or painful area.
• Rinsing with diluted hydrogen peroxide to kill bacteria.
• Taking over-the-counter pain medication to alleviate pain.

What should I do if I have a knocked out tooth?

If you ever lose a tooth due to an injury, it’s important to handle it with care to increase the chances of reattaching it. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Don’t touch the roots or top of the tooth. The roots of your teeth are delicate, so only pick up and handle your lost tooth by the sides and chewing surface.

2. Clean the tooth gently. You can use water or milk to rinse the tooth softly. Don’t try to rub, scrub, dry off, or use soaps or chemicals to clean your lost tooth.

3. Put the tooth back in the socket, if possible. Once gently cleaned, try to gently put the tooth back into its socket, handling only the sides and bottom. Once replaced, softly bite down to keep it in place. Make sure the tooth is oriented properly and not backward. Don’t force it if it won’t fit properly.

4. If you can’t put it back, keep it moist. Putting the tooth in a glass of milk to soak is a great option. Alternatively, you can softly hold the tooth between your gums and cheek. However, this shouldn’t be done with younger children who could swallow the tooth. Don’t use tap water to soak a knocked-out tooth because it could damage the roots. If you don’t have cow’s milk and can’t hold your tooth in its socket or in your cheek, spitting into a container and soaking the tooth in saliva is the next best option.

5. Call our office. Getting to a dentist as quickly as possible is critical. It is possible to reattach a tooth an hour or more after it has been knocked out, but the sooner you can see a dentist, the better the chances are of reattaching it.